BLINN TRUSTEES AUTHORIZE $ 10 MILLION BOND SALE TO BEGIN NEW CAMPUS CONSTRUCTION
The Blinn College Board of Trustees approved a $10 million bond sale during its regular meeting Tuesday night to fund early development of its new Bryan West campus.
In February, Blinn purchased 95 acres at the intersection of F.M. 2818 and Leonard Road in Bryan for the development of a second Brazos County campus. Blinn plans to develop this land into a 10,000–15,000 student campus to complement the College’s existing Bryan campus on Villa Maria Road. The additional campus will allow Blinn to develop additional science, technology, engineering and mathematics offerings and expand its workforce, technical, research and health-related education programs.
“This bond sale brings us one step closer to a new campus that will serve the needs of students, citizens and employers for years to come,” said David Sommer, board president. “We look forward to building a campus that serves as an educational and economic resource for this community while building upon Blinn’s tradition of affordable academic excellence.”
Blinn trustees also authorized the College to negotiate a construction manager at risk contract with Vaughn Construction for Phase 1 of the new campus’s development.
The board was presented with a preliminary glimpse of the Bryan West campus master plan in September. The draft, developed in partnership with Kirksey Architecture, includes a first-phase building designed to service 2,500 students, along with plans for associated amenities such as parking, security and recreational and study space.
The proposed plan calls for the multi-phased development of seven academic buildings, three amenity buildings and as many as 6,000 parking spaces, including more than 1,000 spaces in Phase 1 of the project. As proposed, Phase 1 has a preliminary $35 million construction budget and would accommodate approximately 2,500 students with one amenity building and an academic building that would include eight labs and 18 classrooms.
Blinn anticipates breaking ground on the new campus in early 2016, and Phase 1 is scheduled for completion in time for the Fall 2017 semester.
An additional bond sale in the spring will fund the remaining cost of the campus’s Phase 1 development.
The Board then decided to table the authorization of the termination of Phase Two, Amendment Three of the Construction Manager at Risk Contract for the Bryan Campus Expansion Project, as proposed by Richard O'Malley.